INDONESIAN EPHEMERA DESIGN
'STUCK'
Modern Indonesian design is rooted in the early colonial influence across the country. In the Dutch colony, printers were brought by missionaries for the purpose of printing bibles and newspapers. Upon the end of World War Two, Indonesia regained its independence after decades of interference by colonizers and Japanese occupiers. The country experienced a gradual and significant growth in independent graphic design influence, but it wasn't until the 1970s that the national movement began to gain traction. The movement was driven by technological advancements and by the socio-economic conditions of the preceding decades, which resulted in works shaped by the times.
Among the pieces of Indonesian design history most often forgotten and overlooked are ephemeral pieces such as stickers and labels. Recently, design products that were originally designed to be discarded or degrade with time without the intent to be preserved have come full circle and are now gaining attention from design enthusiasts worldwide. Despite the ubiquity of these contemporary design pieces in the decades of their prime use throughout Indonesia’s urban landscape, these ‘city stickers’ are in many instances considered to be collector’s items in the present day and now have the potential of bringing a much wider spectrum of mainstream knowledge of Indonesian graphic design history into the world
